Woman shocked to discover 12-inch machete in sofa bought on Facebook Marketplace

A woman was shocked when she found a 12-inch machete in a sofa she bought on Facebook Marketplace.

Grandmother-of-two Shirley McNally, 82, from Harlow, Essex bought the sofa from someone local to her area for £180, after seeing it advertised on Facebook in March 2020.

Ms McNally enjoyed her new sofa for a year before she decided to sell it due to her grandson thinking the pattern was “disgusting”.

However, when she was cleaning the sofa in preparation for it to be collected by its new owner, Ms McNally found the huge knife under one of the cushions.

She called Essex Police, who instructed her to bring the weapon into the police station.

Ms McNally said: “I decided to give the sofa a quick Febreze and a hoover before the next owner came to collect it.

“I put my hand down the side of the cushions and felt something hard.

“It felt like a wallet and I thought: ‘Result!’

“I couldn’t believe it when I pulled out a huge Rambo machete.”

Ms McNally said her first reaction to discovering the machete was: 'Oh my god!”

She said the machete came with its leather sheath and that when she pulled it out she “was shocked, it weighs a tonne”.

“It could chop somebody's legs right off.

“I don’t even want it in the house and to think it’s been there for a year and I had no idea.”

“Imagine if I’d given the sofa away with it still there,” Ms McNally added.